Yankees' Anthony Volpe irate over 'false' rumor that he refused to try another position
Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe, right, and YES Network play-by-play announcer Michael Kay, inset. Credit: Getty Images/Dimitrios Kambouris; Jim McIsaac
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A peeved Anthony Volpe hit back on Wednesday at an online clip from earlier in the day, propagated by YES Network play-by-play man Michael Kay but later retracted, that he was unwilling to play a position other than shortstop.
“It’s not true,” Volpe, back in the lineup at short, said before going 1-for-3 in Wednesday night’s 3-0 loss to the Rays at Tropicana Field. “It couldn’t be further than the truth.”
Late Wednesday morning on X, a clip was posted from Tuesday’s Michael Kay Show on ESPN Radio in which Kay claimed that when Volpe was in the minor leagues earlier this season, the subject of the 24-year-old playing some second base was broached.
According to Kay, multiple “people” told him that Volpe replied, “No, I’m a shortstop.”
“That’s not a good look,” Kay continued on the clip. “If it happened.”
Well before Volpe spoke Wednesday afternoon, General manager Brian Cashman, in a text to Newsday, said it did not.
“False,” Cashman wrote. “Not true.”
And on his show Wednesday, Kay retracted what he characterized as the “rumor” he repeated, and did so again in the visitor’s dugout before Wednesday night’s game.
“I was wrong,” Kay said. “Somebody called me today and said, ‘that’s not right.’ I made further calls and they said, ‘no, he never refused to play second base.’ I plan to talk to him [Volpe] at some point today or tomorrow and apologize. I feel badly. I wouldn’t want to put him in the crosshairs.”
Volpe, of course, has been in those for the better part of the last three seasons.
The public reaction to the initial post on X was swift and vitriolic, as the beleaguered Volpe is struggling in what is now his fourth season in the big leagues. He began the season on the injured list recovering from offseason surgery to repair a labrum tear in his left shoulder.
Volpe, who has taken grounders at second base in recent weeks, is the first to acknowledge that questioning his career performance is fair game. But his character and commitment to winning have never been called into question, either from the organization or, most significant, inside the clubhouse.
It was what the rumor implied, that he wasn’t putting the team first and more or less felt entitled to be the starting shortstop, that had Volpe irritated.
“When I was getting optioned, I told Boonie I’d play at catcher,” Volpe said. “I’d do literally whatever the team needed. And that’s the truth. My perspective and my communication and has been whatever the team needs from me and whatever I can do to help contribute.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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